A group of residents of a tea garden in Jalpaiguri on the India-Bhutan border closed a gate to Samtse district to protest the alleged assault of two students by Bhutan police.
Personnel of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), who guard the border, reached the spot and maintained vigil to ensure that the protesters from the Chengmari tea estate do not enter the neighbouring country.
Later in the afternoon, based on the SSB’s assurance, the protesters withdrew and opened the gate.
Sharmila Dorjee, a resident, said five people from the garden, including two students, had walked into Bhutan through the gate in the Nepali line area on Sunday.
“They submitted voter and Aadhaar cards to the Bhutan police and entered the country. After some time, they had an altercation with the police there and some cops roughed up two students. This is unacceptable,” said Sharmila.
As the news spread, residents of the garden walked up to the border at around 7am, closed the gate and resorted to a demonstration.
“For Indians, there are innumerable restrictions and formalities in Bhutan. But when Bhutanese come here, they roam around freely. The Bhutan police cannot resort to such highhandedness and we registered our protest today,” said Parshuram Chhetri, another resident of Chengmari.
During the protests, the gate on the Bhutan side was also closed. After around six hours, the protesters left the border while the SSB continued to patrol the area.
Officials of the Jalpaiguri district police also gathered information about the demonstration.
“The protest was the fallout of a local issue. It has been resolved,” said Khandbahale Umesh Ganpath, the superintendent of police of Jalpaiguri.